STANFORD, Calif. --- The No. 6 seed Georgia men's tennis team defeated 11th-seeded Duke by a 4-1 score Thursday afternoon, becoming the first team to write its name on the draw for the quarterfinals at Stanford University's Taube Tennis Center in Stanford, Calif.

Georgia won the doubles point, then had to rebound from four first-set losses in singles on its way to the Round of 16 victory. The Bulldogs improve to 23-5 on the season and end the year for the Blue Devils at 22-10.

"This was a great match," said head coach Manuel Diaz. "We played very well. It was a tough match, the doubles point coming down to the wire there. We're happy we came out with a win. The guys played with a lot of tenacity and fight, and I'm proud of them."

Georgia has now won 22 of its last 24 NCAA Championships matches and are in the quarterfinal round for the seventh straight year.

The decider would come at No. 1, where the sixth-ranked team of Javier Garrapiz and Hernus Pieters were battling No. 7 Henrique Cunha and Reid Carleton. At 7-7 after staying on serve all afternoon, the Bulldogs held to take the 8-7 lead and finally got the break when it mattered most, closing with the 9-7 win to secure the doubles point for Georgia for the 21st time in 28 tries in 2011.

The senior Bernstein - playing in front of his parents who made the trip out from Winder, Ga. - was Georgia's first singles winner of the day and gave Georgia the 2-0 lead with his 6-4, 6-4 victory over Saba at No. 4. Duke cut the lead in half with a win on court three, where Mengel toppled 51st-ranked Doumbia, 6-2, 6-4.

But Georgia pulled away again with a win for 13th-ranked Spencer over eighth-ranked Cunha on court one, going 6-4, 6-3 to increase the lead to 3-1.

At that point, courts 2, 5, and 6 were all in third sets with the Bulldogs needing just one for the clinch. It came at No. 6 as Pieters had rebounded from a 6-4 loss in the first set to down Marchese 6-3 in the second, then raced out for a 6-2 win in the third set to seal the Round of 16 win for Georgia.

"I just tried to finish the match," Pieters said. "I was taking it one point at a time, trying not to get distracted with everything going on. I was able to concentrate and finish. I was upset when I lost the first set. I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing and I let him dominate, but in the middle of the second set and in the third set, I started playing more aggressively."

Garrapiz and Taboada each had their matches suspended after splitting the first and second sets vs. 13th-ranked Carleton and Wietoska, respectively.

In its 33rd overall NCAA Championships appearance, the Bulldogs improve to 86-27 all-time in the tournament.

Georgia will meet league rival Tennessee - which advanced today with a 4-2 win over California - in Saturday's quarterfinals set for 3 p.m. ET. Follow all the action on the live chat in addition to live scoring and live streaming video available through Georgiadogs.com.